


Secluded Spaces

by amethyst-noir (Arbonne)



Series: Prompt Collection [70]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Captivity, Carrying, Cloak of Levitation (Marvel), Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Engagement, Established Relationship, Hurt Stephen Strange, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Stephen Strange Bingo 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 11:56:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19887316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arbonne/pseuds/amethyst-noir
Summary: When Stephen and the Cloak of Levitation return from another dimension hurt, scared and unwilling to engage with the world it falls to Tony to pick up the pieces. As soon as he knows that there are pieces to pick up, that is.





	Secluded Spaces

**Author's Note:**

> This fills two different rather long prompts - they are with extended notes is at the end of this tale since I don't want to blow this box up. Thank you, @doctor-cube and Anon, for two amazing prompts that where made to be together.
> 
> @stephenstrangebingo prompt: _Scared_ | @badthingshappenbingo prompt: _Captivity_

Stephen held out for three long, lonely, miserable days before he gave in and forced himself to conjure a portal to Tony's workshop since he knew that the man wasn't at home. It wavered and fizzled unsteadily. All his good intentions be damned, he wanted to be with Tony. Now.

He saw Tony looking up from his workshop table, obviously angry and scared in equal measures at being ignored for days. The anger vanished the second he got a look of Stephen's face through the portal. "Stephen?!"

"Tony," he whispered, unable to make the final step through it thanks to the burning pain his side. "I'm sorry." He closed his eyes and tried to hold back the tears of pain and frustration. He felt alone and so very cold without the Cloak around him to warm and protect him.

A quick look assured him that the Cloak was still bundled up on the nearest chair, watching but still unwilling to engage with anyone.

He pressed a shaking hand against his right side as if that could help with the pain and the feeling of weakness that were his newest companions. "Please." He hated himself for the breathy sound of his voice but stopped caring the moment he felt strong hands on his arms, holding him upright. "I need…" _You._ Tony had stepped through the instable portal. For _him_. He closed his eyes in gratitude and felt himself relax for the first time in far too long.

"Baby? God, what happened to you? Your face…" Tony put two fingers on his chin to force him to raise his head. He blinked in the sudden light and swayed. "Shit, what...? Fuck, you're _bleeding_! Come on. _Wong!_ Where are you? What the hell is wrong with him?"

Stephen didn't protest when Tony took him into his arms and he laid his head on Tony's shoulder with a quiet sigh. Finally, he was where he belonged. "Sorry for making you wait," he murmured but Tony shushed him gently.

"We'll talk about it later. Let's get you cleaned up first." There was a careful kiss to his cheek but Stephen still flinched at the pressure on his tender skin. "Sorry."

"Don't be. Want to feel your touch."

He was silent after that, trying to make himself as small as possible in Tony's arms, and closing his eyes. He could feel it when Tony's eyes fell to the lifeless Cloak but he didn't respond to Tony's questioning sound, choosing to soak up his warmth and strength instead. Tony was so _warm_ ; for the first time in such a long time he wasn't freezing anymore. Tony would probably bring him into his old bedroom in the Sanctum. That was okay. He let go of complete awareness and let himself slip into some hazy state between consciousness and sleep.

Sometime later there was soft murmuring as Wong and Tony conferred with each other, gentle hands on his body as his tunic and the loose, bloody bandage beneath it were stripped away. The ice-cold touch of a needle, closing the deep gash on his right side, and some soothing healing magic didn't even make him flinch. He refused to answer any question or to open his eyes to look at his lover or his best friend. Instead he held on to Tony's hand as best as he could while Wong put a bandage around his middle. It was tight, almost too tight, but it also made him feel as if there was something that was able to hold him together. He took a careful breath and smiled when he felt the pressure of the bandages around him. Yes, much better. Almost as good as Tony's hold on him and Wong's gentle hands on his waist.

"I don't know what happened to them both." Wong's voice filtered through an eternity later. "This is the first time in three days that he allows anyone to be in the same room with him, let alone touch him. I wanted to call you but he was so distressed that I didn't want to go against his wishes." A pause, some stroking of his face and neck and he moved into the gentle touch with a sigh. "I'll see if I can bring the Cloak in here. It doesn't want to be touched either and refuses to levitate but it also doesn't want to be parted from Stephen for too long." Wong, once again. More words he didn't listen to.

"You stupid idiot. Always trying to suffer in silence and refusing help." A sigh. "Rest now. We'll talk later." It was a threat and a promise all in one.

Stephen didn't want to fall asleep but he kept his eyes and mouth closed, glad to be finally safe in Tony's arms. He couldn't even muster the strength to hate himself for his neediness and chose to soak of Tony's tender touches on his sore body instead.

It had been so long, after all. He wished for the Cloak to shield them both but that was impossible right now. Maybe it would never be again.

"Shhh, relax, Stephen. Try to shut your mind down and sleep. Please."

As almost always when Tony used his gentle voice of command Stephen responded by surrendering himself into his care.

* * *

Stephen coughed slightly in his sleep and Tony held his breath, hoping that he wouldn't wake up. After a few heartbeats he settled down again, pressing the side of his face a little bit harder against Tony's shoulder. The gesture hurt his chest, and put unwelcome pressure on the implants, there but there was nothing in the world that could have made Tony shift away.

"Shh," he murmured, softly stroking down Stephen's back and making sure to stay far away from the still tender area around the deep cut on his side. Stephen needed his sleep, needed time to heal and recover. The thick bandages around most of Stephen's torso almost made him tear up again and he pressed a soft kiss against Stephen's hair to hide his face. They had spent far too much time in a not-fun way in Stephen's old bedroom over the last weeks while Stephen's body was struggling to heal and his mind only slowly started to recover.

"It's taking too long, no matter what you say," Tony had complained just a few hours ago and Wong had just looked at him and neither disagreed nor tried to play the situation down. "It's been two weeks and he has barely begun to heal. He's still bleeding if he moves wrong, for fuck's sake, and we both know that he doesn't even do much of that!"

"We still don't know what he - _they_ \- went through." Wong had looked sad and lost, gazing towards the library where Stephen was once again brooding over the almost unresponsive Cloak of Levitation.

They didn't know. They only knew that it must have been traumatic to the nth degree since Stephen came back bruised, almost non-verbal, cut up and clingy as hell while the Cloak was so afraid of everything that it barely even tolerated a light touch by Stephen himself.

Tony looked up from his contemplation of Stephen's bruised face and toward the pile of red fabric lying beside them on an ornate chair. The Cloak didn't want to be touched, no, but it also didn't want to be left alone for even a second now. It also didn't levitate anymore but preferred to curl in around itself and lie around in a heap on various surfaces, mostly one particular chair, watching everything but not responding to anything.

Wong had taken to float the whole chair if they needed to move it around and once or twice Tony had carried the monstrosity around himself. One look at the obviously hurt and depressed Cloak had let every snarky comment die on his tongue. He still didn't know how the thing managed to convey its misery that clearly but it was as impressive as it was scary.

"What happened to you?" Tony asked out loud. For the first time the question wasn't addressed at Stephen but at the Cloak. "You're not just sad because he got hurt on your watch, that happened before." This was no ordinary moping which he had witnessed before. This was pure desolation. Tony reached out with his right hand and touched the edge of the chair with his fingertips while still holding Stephen secure with his other arm. He made sure to not touch the Cloak. "How can I help you?" Great, now he was trying to play therapist to a fucking piece of _fabric_. The great Tony Stark, reduced to useless waiting while the love of his life lay shivering and miserable in his arms and his clothing was watching them like a dying dog.

He smiled encouragingly as a corner of the Cloak inched forwards a little bit and touched his fingers. It shied back almost immediately and curled up even more around itself but it was the first contact between them since Stephen had gone into whatever cursed dimension it had been that had traumatized him and his relic. He waved at the Cloak before he withdrew this arm to get a better hold around Stephen again.

"We were separated for a long time."

Stephen's quiet voice, raspy from disuse, shattered the oppressive silence of the room. It took everything he had but Tony did not jump in fright but he tightened his hold reflexively. Stephen hissed in pain and flinched.

"Fuck! Sorry!" Tony loosened his hold and put a careful hand above the wound on his side. "You startled me."

Stephen didn't respond to that verbally but he relaxed once again into Tony's embrace.

"Ready to talk about it?" Tony tried after a few seconds of terse silence.

In answer Stephen held out his right hand. Tony took it and, with all the care in the world, entwined their fingers. It was a gesture Stephen loved but couldn't initiate because of his limited mobility. It had taken him weeks before he was comfortable enough to show Tony how to do it with an minimum amount of pain.

"We were taken captive and separated almost immediately after our arrival," Stephen finally said. "I don't know what they did to the Cloak, by the time I managed to break free it was already unresponsive. I was barely able to pick it up and bring it back home without it freaking out in my arms. I got hurt while trying to get it out of its… confinement."

They both looked at the Cloak which somehow managed to convey an air of remorse.

"Not your fault," Stephen whispered. "They hurt you far worse than me." His eyes were already closing again. Tony had noticed that he had become very light-sensitive since his return and that even the dim, indirect light in here seemed to hurt him. "They tortured my Cloak." The words should have been funny but the obvious pain behind them let any attempt at humor die. Tony swallowed. He _liked_ the Cloak of Levitation, annoying as it might be sometimes, and it had been hard seeing it torn on Titan, the thought of it being tortured was horrible.

Another, nasty suspicion formed. "How long?" No answer except for a sudden tension in Stephen's body. Jackpot. "How long was it for you two? That you were over there?"

"How long was I gone from your perspective?"

 _Shit._ Not outright refusal so there was hope to get an actual answer. "About four days." He still looked at the Cloak while speaking. It was inching forwards a little as if to not miss a word. "Wong told me that you are back but needed a little bit of time to collect yourself before you came home."

A soft sigh. "Don't be mad at him. I more or less ordered him to do that."

"I'm not. This one is totally your fault. He was just being a good friend to a fucking idiot. But since when does he follow your orders?" He could feel Stephen smile against his shoulder at that.

"There might have been yelling and threatening," he confessed.

"How long, Stephen?"

Silence. Stephen shifted around a little bit and the Cloak came even closer, almost touching the edge of their bed now.

"I don't know," was the eventual answer. "I stopped counting after three months. Couldn't keep it straight in my head anymore."

There was nothing to say to that. Tony pressed a light kiss against Stephen's temple and reached out to the Cloak again. This time it put a part of itself on the palm of his hand. It was shivering, obviously still afraid and at least as touch starved as its master.

"What did they do to you?" Tony didn't even know to whom of the two he was speaking anymore.

"You don't want to know."

He didn't. He really, truly didn't. But still… "Stephen?"

"Seriously. I would take too long to explain and I don't want to talk about it anyway. It's okay. Nothing too bad, promise. They left me more or less alone." He paused. "All my injuries were sustained while trying to escape. They treated me well, they wanted the Cloak."

Tony stroked the little bit of fabric between his fingers with infinite care. Alone for months, which explained how touch-starved Stephen was and probably in abysmal lightning, going by his continued sensitivity. Torture, if Stephen wanted to admit it or not. All alone, without even the comfort of the Cloak… which was hurt in the meantime. "I'm sorry."

"They would have let me go much sooner if I had consented to leave it behind," Stephen whispered, still hiding his face. "But I couldn't. I just couldn't."

"Of course not," Tony reassured him. As if anyone who knew the Cloak of Levitation would have done anything different. "We don't leave our family behind, no matter the cost. We learned that the hard way."

He could feel the pleasure the Cloak radiated at his words and smiled when a little bit more fabric found its way into his hand.

"See? It's coming around."

"It's hurt and scared."

"Hmm." Tony carefully pulled the Cloak closer until it could touch the back of Stephen's hand. "You just need a little bit more time to heal, just like Stephen, right?" he asked. "Whenever you're ready. We'll be here for you."

He could feel Stephen's tears of gratefulness on his neck and it made the embarrassment of speaking to a piece of fabric much more bearable.

"I have an idea that might help," he said a couple of minutes later, still mindlessly stroking both Stephen and the Cloak. "I've been thinking it for a while and it might be stupid…"

"Tony," Stephen interrupted. "Just spit it out." He rolled over and sat up, wincing all the way. Tony just watched him sadly as he put his shaking left hand over his right side. _You're healing so slowly, my love_ , he thought for the millionth time. His look must have communicated his thoughts because Stephen smiled sadly at him before shaking his head.

Stephen insisted over and over again that he wasn't healing too slowly, that it was just an aftereffect of the time-delay between the dimensions. Wong, after a long, uncomfortable and rather invasive magical check had been forced to concur but he'd looked unhappy and unconvinced as he'd echoed Stephen's words.

"I thought that maybe FRIDAY can help?"

Stephen raised an elegant, unimpressed eyebrow. "Nothing against her but… _how_?"

Tony shrugged and played with the little bit of fabric between his fingertips. Stephen was watching them like a hawk. "Let her try to talk with the Cloak. She knows more about it than us, I can promise you that."

"There is no information of any kind concerning the Cloak on the internet or in any other database." Stephen's voice should have been icy but instead it was kind. If he wasn't already head over heels in love with him Tony would have fallen right this moment.

"She's not a search-engine, Stephen," he said as gently as possible. "She's so much more and you know it. She's also one of most empathic beings I know. Next to the Cloak of course. They have a connection. You know that."

They had. Nobody, neither Tony, nor Stephen, nor Wong knew how it worked but fact was that the hundreds if not thousands of years old magical relic and the rather young AI shared a bond of friendship. They hadn't even figured out how they communicated with each other yet but somehow they did.

Stephen's tense posture relaxed a little bit and he held out his free hand towards the Cloak. "What do you propose?" He smiled when the Cloak touched his hand and wrapped his wrist in a secure hold.

"Putting them together in a room and letting them talk it out."

"I'm always here and willing to help," FRIDAY announced via Tony's cellphone, lying on the bedside table. Neither human failed to notice how the Cloak perked up at her voice and looked into the direction it had come from. "But we would prefer to be alone, if you don't mind."

The Cloak nodded.

Stephen chuckled. "Thrown out of my own bedroom by an AI and my own clothing. Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

Tony took a deep breath, weary of broaching the subject he'd avoided like the plague over the last few days. "Your bedroom," he eventually said. " _Ours_ is still waiting and feeling rather lonely, I think."

Stephen stared at him, at a loss for words.

"I want you back home, Stephen. I want to take care of you in the comforts of the place we built together." Spoken like that it sounded like they where living in a penthouse far away from the Sanctum or something, not in a weird in-between place between the Sanctum and Tower, accessible through permanent portals from both places. "Let's our companions sort themselves out in peace and let me take you home to take care of you."

In lieu of anything better to say Stephen picked out the obvious. "You've been taking care of me since I came back."

Tony gently took Stephen's hand away from his side and replaced it with his own. "Let me take you home and take care of you," he repeated slowly. "Those two can do without us for a while."

"That we can," FRIDAY confirmed and the Cloak nodded, making a slight shooing notion.

"See? They want us gone, too."

Stephen looked up with an incredible vulnerable expression on his face. "I'd like to go home," he confessed in a surprised tone, as if it hadn't occurred to him that the way there had always been open.

It broke Tony's heart. _What have they done to you, baby? To screw you up this badly?_

"Then let's go home." He rolled out of bed and held out his hands to help Stephen up. After a moment of hesitation Stephen put his hands into Tony's waiting ones and let himself be pulled up. He grimaced but didn't make a sound. Tony held on to his hands and tried to convey his love with a light caress. "You two will be okay here?" he asked the Cloak and the phone. The Cloak waved and FRIDAY pinged an affirmation. "Good. You know where to find us when you're done."

"Good luck," Stephen said softly as Tony led him out of the bedroom and towards the portal situated in an otherwise abandoned room on the same floor of the Sanctum.

"She'll sort it out, you see," Tony promised with more optimism than he actually felt.

Stephen smiled a little at that. "Just like you'll sort me out?"

"You don't need sorting out," Tony answered just as softly. "You need time to heal."

Stephen didn't have any answer to that and let himself be led through the portal into the pocket dimension they called home.

* * *

When Stephen woke up in their shared bed a couple of hours later he was alone, but not abandoned. He could still feel Tony's aura around, just not in the same room. He winced in preparation of the pain but was pleasantly surprised when getting up hurt far less than it had before. He put his left hand on his side and pressed carefully down - definitely less pain. Tony's idea of bringing him home had been a good one, he was forced to admit.

"I don't know when I'll be in." Tony's voice came from their living room and Stephen slowly made his way over there, trying to not miss a word. "Stephen's still pretty banged up and I don't want him to be alone." A harshly indrawn breath. Stephen turned around the last corner and stood in the doorway, looking at Tony sitting on the couch with a tablet; yet another phone pressed against his ear.

"They can be glad that they said that to you and not in my face!" Now there was anger. "Rhodey, tell Secretary Ross that he can kiss my ass whenever _I_ say that I have time for him and not a second sooner! Really, the man should know by now that my family has priority over whatever he has cooked up in that screwed up little mind of his this time!" A short pause. "Yes, you can quote me on that!" His voice got softer again. "Yeah, sugarplum, thanks for the update. Yes, he's better. Still ways to go though." Another short pause. "Yeah. He is. I'll tell him. Thanks, love you, bye."

Tony just sat there after ending the call and stared out the window at the fantastic view of the Andromeda Galaxy. "Rhodey sends his love," he told Stephen without turning around. "Ross is still an asshole and our dear non-humans are still in communion or something." He turned around and smiled when he got a good look at Stephen's face. As always, his brilliant grin made him look years if not decades younger. "You look much better, baby."

As always Stephen was helpless against that grin and smiled back. "I feel much better," he admitted. "You were right."

Tony's grin became a gentle smile. "Good for you to finally see the truth. Come here." He opened his arms and Stephen folded his body against Tony's with a sigh. It should be embarrassing how much he loved to be held but he had stopped caring about such things a long time ago. He put his head on Tony's shoulder and shivered happily when Tony pressed a short kiss against the pulse point on his neck. "You're finally healing." A statement, not a question.

"Yes." He was. He could feel that the long-delayed healing had finally kicked in and that his body was truly in synch with his home dimension again. He put Tony's hand over the bandage on his side again, protection and comfort all in one. "Not long now," he promised. His magic would take care of most of the damage now.

"Good. Because you know what is in three days, right?"

Stephen groaned. "The gala?"

"The gala," Tony confirmed. "And I want my fiancée on my side for the most important party of the year."

Stephen almost choked on air. "Fiancée?!"

Tony pressed another kiss against his neck. "Oh, didn't I tell you?" he asked innocently.

"Tell me what? That we got engaged while I was asleep?"

"Hmm. Something like that." Tony looked up. "See who's gracing us with its presence?" He waved at the Cloak which looked shyly around the corner. "Come in, you've seen and helped us doing much worse things." The Cloak came nearer, gently put down Tony's phone and levitated in the air in front of them as if waiting for something. It seemed a little bit unsteady but otherwise okay.

Stephen held out his right hand and smiled in delight when a hesitant corner wrapped itself around his wrist. "Welcome back."

He received a squeeze in return.

"Thank you, FRIDAY."

"Anytime, Stephen," the AI replied. Her tone made it clear that the subject was closed and she wouldn't answer further questions. Stephen could respect that.

"While you're busy holding hands with your better half," Tony said as he took his left hand, "May I?"

Stephen looked from his ugly, scarred and shaking fingers to the simple silver ring on Tony's palm. He swallowed, closed his eyes and let go of the last of his doubts and fears. They'd talked about this so many times before and he'd known that the moment was close. He thought that he was prepared for it. He wasn't.

"Yes," he whispered, spreading his fingers a little bit farther. The Cloak took his left wrist too and held his hand steady so that Tony could slide the engagement ring onto his finger. "Yes," he repeated, trying to swallow down his tears of joy.

"Yes," he whispered once again a split-second before Tony kissed him.

"No, please, have mercy with me," he begged a couple of minutes later when the Cloak tried to strangle him with an enthusiastic embrace.

It didn't listen to him and Stephen knew that it would be alright, given enough time.

* * *

Three days later he had his grand entrance to SI's yearly charity gala on the side of his fiancée, clad in an elegant tux, the Cloak billowing dramatically behind him. Nobody noticed that he was more sitting than standing or that his Cloak shied away from any contact but his own or Tony's.

But what _was_ noticed and splashed all over the tabloids was the sheer amount of PDA between Tony Stark and his boyfriend, something the world had never seen before. Where before there had only been a few snapshots of them touching each other while out in public there suddenly were a ton of photos of them holding hands, touching each other casually and one especially memorable photo of Tony Stark having his arm around Stephen Strange's waist while gazing at him with a look full of love and adoration. The moment had been followed by a kiss but thanks to a subtle touch of magic that hadn't been caught on film. Only their smiles afterwards had been and those pictures trended pretty much everywhere.

Speculation as to what had happened between the two of them ran amok but both parties declined to comment.

The marriage ceremony itself was held secretly only a short time later with only close family attending.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a wild one, I know. I enjoyed writing it immensely. Here are the actual prompts:
> 
> From @doctor-cube: _Okay so what if Stephen comes home from weeks of dimension hopping in pretty bad shape? Not only is he touched up physically and mentally but he is touch starved? So he is constantly just doing small things like holding Tony’s hand more in public and even sometimes kissing his forehead (despite Stephen’s past rules about PDA). Tony is constantly worrying over his injuries because his sorcerer is taking his time with healing._
> 
> From Anon: _Stephen is forced to go in some extremely dark dimension. When he walks out of it and finally back to his boyfriend he’s clearly in shock (also he doesn’t want to see Tony for some reason but they moved together so he can’t avoid him either, considering that Stark doesn’t have any SI related thing to do), but not as much as the Cloak which is totally unresponsive. Stephen doesn’t know what to do with it because has always been it to help and comfort him and not the other way around. Extra points if Friday and/or DUM-E help Stephen in trying to bring Cloakie’s personality back and in understanding the reason behind its reaction._
> 
> Lengthy notes and bingo cards can be found [here](https://amethyst-noir.tumblr.com/post/186429479426/okay-so-what-if-stephen-comes-home-from-weeks-of/). Thank you so much for reading! 💞


End file.
